{"id":146458,"date":"2022-11-10T13:22:26","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T12:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=146458"},"modified":"2026-01-19T15:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:07:18","slug":"langeveld-building-named-after-rotterdams-first-female-professor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/11\/10\/langeveld-building-named-after-rotterdams-first-female-professor\/","title":{"rendered":"Langeveld Building named after Rotterdam\u2019s first female professor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new education building bears Henny Langeveld’s name. She was Rotterdam’s first woman to earn the title of professor. A former student, former colleague and professor currently working at the university take the view that the academic deserves to be remembered for more than just being ‘the first woman’.<\/p>\n

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In 1969 Henny Langeveld became the first female professor at Erasmus University. In 1973 she left Rotterdam, but in 1986 she returned to the university. In 1991 she retired, this photo was taken for her farewell interview with Quod Novum.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u201cThere was actually no interest whatsoever in emancipatory issues at Erasmus University\u201d, Henny Langeveld herself states in a jubilee book<\/a> celebrating forty years of social sciences at Erasmus University. \u201cNor was any funding allocated to me. If I wanted to do research, I had to fund it myself.\u201d Langeveld gave this interview in 2003, one year before she passed away. She was made Professor of Empirical Sociology in 1969, becoming the first female professor to be appointed without any \u2018friction\u2019. \u201cThat was fine with me\u201d, she said regarding the absence of any fuss surrounding her appointment. \u201cI don\u2019t think it was that big of a deal anyway. The one difference was that I was appointed as a lecturer first, whereas many male colleagues were fast-tracked to professor straight away. So there was still discrimination going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018What you really ought to do in such circumstances is tell them to \u2018zip it!\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

In 1986, Langeveld spoke to Quod Novum<\/em><\/a>, the precursor to Erasmus Magazine<\/em>, about how she coped with that discrimination in the academic world. \u201cEmancipation is a process of a lifetime. I still do conform sometimes. For example, men are very much inclined to puff themselves up and sell themselves. Sometimes, you\u2019ll end up sitting next to a man like that at a dinner, and he\u2019s exuding an air of success and omniscience and has stopped listening to other people. That\u2019s when I get the sense that they\u2019re making a conscious effort to impress. What you really ought to do in such circumstances is tell them to \u2018zip it!\u2019. But I don\u2019t, because I\u2019ve no desire to spoil the mood. Also, it would lead to another argument.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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Henny Langeveld was born on 21 June 1926. She obtained her doctorate in 1957 with a thesis on migration from East Groningen to the Randstad region of the Netherlands. Langeveld joined the Nederlandse Economische Hogeschool (which went on to become Erasmus University Rotterdam) as a member of the academic staff in 1962. She used the surname In \u2019t Veld-Langeveld whilst married but went back to using her maiden name following her divorce. This was not an easy thing for an academic to do \u2013 it made her previous publications harder to find, for instance. She passed away on 23 February 2004 at the age of 77.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

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The Langeveld Building officially opens on 10 November 2022.<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Nigh on two decades after her death, Langeveld will receive a tribute \u2013 a tribute the size of a building, in fact. Emeritus professor and sociologist Han Leune laughs as he imagines how Langeveld might have reacted to the prospect of a building bearing her name. \u201cShe\u2019d have found it over the top. She\u2019d shrug her shoulders and say: \u2018Is that really necessary?\u2019\u201d She turned down the distinction of a knighthood in the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 1991. \u201cShe was modest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leune characterises the professor as \u201cextremely versatile, creative, markedly empirical in focus, not ideologically motivated, very dedicated and not one to look down on people from an ivory tower\u201d. Leune was one of the initial 47 students at the fledgling Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences in 1963. Langeveld subsequently supervised his PhD project.<\/p>\n

\u2018A debt of gratitude'<\/h2>

\u201cErasmus University Rotterdam owes her a huge debt of gratitude.\u201d Leune closed his eulogy with these words at Langeveld\u2019s funeral. \u201cShe was a pioneer, involved in founding the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. As a scholar, she knew her subject and was solid on the teaching front. She studied society assiduously and was extremely creative when it came to finding appropriate research methods. She was also heavily engaged in statistical research, making her a pioneer in that regard as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018She not only studied societal issues objectively but also thought about what could be done about them\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Leune praises Langeveld\u2019s versatility too. She started out researching migration, then switched to sociology of the family. Subsequently, she shifted her focus to women\u2019s position in society and after retiring focused primarily on cultural sociology. \u201cShe not only studied societal issues objectively but also thought about what could be done about them, as her 1973 transition to the Scientific Council for Government Policy (the advisory body at the intersection between science and policy) attests. Henny\u2019s farewell gathering was held at her house, but we were not in high spirits. We were sorry to see her go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disappointed<\/h2>
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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSUHK \/ UB Bijzondere Collecties<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Langeveld returned to Erasmus University in 1986. Minister Arie Pais wanted to encourage research into emancipation and awarded funding for a professorship. Back then, Hanne Groenendijk was a member of the academic staff in Women\u2019s Studies and was on the selection committee. She can still clearly recall some of the male professors\u2019 attitude towards women\u2019s studies. \u201cOne of the professors in the department in which I was to be appointed went to the press. My appointment was going to adversely impact on his international reputation and that of his department.\u201d Groenendijk did not let this stop her, just like Langeveld, despite her disappointment regarding her second post.<\/p>\n

Langeveld was \u2018shut away\u2019 \u2013 at least, that was how it felt to her \u2013 in the rooms around the pond, in Philosophy. \u201cStaff referred to that part of the building as \u2018the pit\u2019\u201d, explains Groenendijk. \u201cHenny was engaged in scenario research on how society might develop if women went out to work more and what impact this would have on family life. But she did not receive any funding from the university for those research projects. She had to secure contract research herself. \u201cThis made her feel like she wasn\u2019t being taken seriously as an academic. It was hugely disappointing for her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018This made her feel like she wasn\u2019t being taken seriously as an academic. It was hugely disappointing for her\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

\u201cBut looking back, Henny achieved a great deal despite the obstacles. She carried out research for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, for Rotterdam City Council and for the Rotterdam police too. The police were keen to recruit more women to the force and therefore wanted a study on recruitment and selection policy. She researched how to help women off benefits more swiftly for the local authority. Both of these are still current topics and persistent problems. She really understood the importance to society of those studies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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Lees meer<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t